Updated 18-Sep: Welcome to the Schriefer Blog, my name is Tavis Schriefer. Recently, my wife Jill and I raised money to supply driFIRE shirts to every soldier in Apache Company of the 1-501st Parachute Infantry Regiment. We were successful in raising over $6500 and we would like to thank everyone for all their support to make this happen. Please read our entire message here...

Monday, July 16, 2007

While the buzz at home centers on benchmarks measuring progress in Iraq, troops on the ground are focusing on their mission and what they’re accomplishing, a senior enlisted advisor said today.Army Command Sgt. Maj. Bernie Knight said via conference call from Iraq he seldom hears his soldiers of the 25th Infantry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team talk on a big scale about whether “we are going to win this thing or not win this thing.”

Rather, he said, they’re looking at their own slice of the action – in their case, security operations in Iskandariyah – and focusing on the changes they’re making there.

“North Babil (province) has changed quite a bit in the past eight months we have been here. It’s a tribute to what the men are doing,” Knight said of his Fort Richardson, Alaska-based troops. “I think they are motivated to try to see the difference here, and get (the Iraqis) to do it on their own.” ...